CPM Soomro

Senate Chairman Mohammadmian Soomro took oath as caretaker prime minister CPM on Friday. He was administered the oath by President Musharr...

Senate Chairman Mohammadmian Soomro took oath as caretaker prime minister CPM on Friday. He was administered the oath by President Musharraf after the assemblies stood dissolved the day earlier. As Dawn noted, 8220;It was the first National Assembly in the country8217;s 37-year parliamentary history to have completed its five-year term.8221; But, argued The Daily Times in its editorial November 16, 8220;The course of this 8216;historic8217; National Assembly has not run smooth. If Parliament was conceived as an alternative to battles in the streets, and as a locus of compromise and accommodation instead of internecine conflict, this National Assembly seems to have accomplished just the opposite. The grand 8216;compromise8217; achieved by the 17th Amendment turned out to be a game of numbers from the point of view of the ruling party, and another step in the direction of clerical rule for the religious parties. It nefariously ousted both the mainstream parties from power by decreeing that their leaders could not become prime ministers and securing their exiles.8221;

The political confrontation implicit in this arrangement took its toll: 8220;The most lethal consequence of the discord in the National Assembly was the disagreement over what was happening in the 8216;ungoverned spaces8217; of Pakistan. Under pressure from the outside world to roll back the military strategy based on projection of power into Afghanistan, the Musharraf regime sought approval of policy to counter the concentration of 8216;foreign warriors8217; in the Tribal Areas. Seeing the government in trouble, the opposition joined ranks and set on foot a counter-policy of 8216;denial8217;. This 8216;denial8217; seeped into the public mind and tended to delegitimise all action taken by the state to contain the terrorism brewing in the Tribal Areas and threatening to spill over into the settled areas. The line that the government was simply taking orders from Washington caught on and scuttled all serious resolve to face up to the challenge of Al Qaeda and Talibanisation in the NWFP.8221;

Q038;A

On Tuesday, The News had elaborated on the process for selecting the caretaker PM. According to sources, PML-Q President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and an intelligence agency 8220;high-up8221; had conducted hurried interviews of candidates for the caretaker prime minister and his cabinet. Among those in the running had been General Jehangir Karamat, Musharraf8217;s predecessor as army chief. According to the news report, 8220;Background discussions with some of those short-listed for the interviews reveal that the military bosses and their political allies have entirely opposite concerns. What they are trying to draw out from the candidates is whether they have the capability to cope with crises. For example, the intelligence agency officials are more concerned about the world reaction if they have to do some 8216;reverse engineering8217;, of course, in the larger national interest.8221; Hussain, said one of the hopefuls, was more concerned about the candidates8217; personal political ambitions. Soomro, by Dawn8217;s profile, is a confidant of Musharraf, having won his Senate seat from Sindh on a PML-Q ticket.

Two contenders

By mid-week Imran Khan8217;s appearance at the Punjab University campus in Lahore had taken the spotlight. Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf, had on Tuesday announced his plan to induct students in the anti-emergency movement. Upon his arrival at the campus, however, activists of the Islami Jamiat Talaba, the student wing of the Jamaat-i-Islami, held him and handed him over to the police Dawn, November 14. His ex-wife, Jemima, meanwhile, has launched the 8216;Free Pakistan Movement8217; in Britain, having already petitioned Prime Minister Gordon Brown to maintain pressure on

Musharraf Dawn, November 15.

More significant, perhaps, is the seeming division between deal-makers Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto. She has been distancing herself from the general ever since emergency was imposed, and on November 13, demanded that he step down as both president and army chief. In an editorial on Thursday, The News said that given the suspicion that this is expedient positioning, her PPP 8220;must do more to re-establish its credentials as a party with genuine, wide-ranging populist support. This can happen only if it shows it has the organisational ability and the appeal necessary to bring large numbers of people onto the streets, even in the face of state hostility.8221;

Garrison state

On Tuesday, an editorial in Dawn, as in most other newspapers, expressed outrage at amendments to the Army Act 1952, allowing the court-martialling of civilians: 8220;The fact that civilians can be court-martialled for a wide range of crimes and offences 8212; from alleged acts of terrorism and treason to giving statements 8216;conducive to public mischief8217; whatever that means 8212; is yet another indication that Pakistan is fast turning into a garrison state reminiscent of the Zia era.8221;

Kharif alert

On Wednesday, Dawn reported that the government has 8220;practically8221; abolished the support price of wheat. At a meeting presided over by now former PM Shaukat Aziz, the Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet 8220;decided to de-link support price and procurement price of wheat and had set a target of seven million tonnes of wheat procurement for the 2007-08 crop at prices to be decided at that procurement time.8221;